State Rep. Houston Gaines (R-Athens) said nothing about a prosecutor oversight bill that he hadn’t said before. Neither did local District Attorney Deborah Gonzalez. What made a recent town hall meeting in East Athens newsworthy was that they said it to each other.
Gonzalez crashed the town hall meeting and—after Gaines responded to a hostile question about a bill creating a state oversight commission to, in Republicans’ view, “reign in” progressive prosecutors—confronted Gaines about the bill, which she says targets her for political and racial purposes.
“[Gonzalez is] trying to be fair to the people, so suddenly she’s under scrutiny,” said attendee Mary Bagby. “I think because she has a little tint to her skin, people are against her, and I think it’s horrible. It’s terrible. And I think it shows racism still in the Classic City.”
Gaines responded that Gonzalez is not enforcing the law, and said she’s lost several murder cases. “That puts public safety at risk, so are we supposed to wait another four years?” he said. The oversight commission, he said, would have the power to suspend or remove such prosecutors, allowing voters to choose another one.
“It has nothing to do with race. It has nothing to do with partisanship,” Gaines said. “There has been issue after issue on both sides of the law,” he said, citing the Ahmaud Arberry case, where multiple district attorneys refused to prosecute Arberry’s killers.
Gonzalez—who said she was not invited, but saw the event on social media and thought it was important to show up—confronted Gaines. “What’s interesting is the timing of this bill, which came out after the 2020 election, when six women of color won election around the state,” she said.
Gonzalez reiterated her assertion that the Western Circuit DA’s office is understaffed because it is not competitive on salaries. “People are leaving because they can go 20 miles down the road and make $20,000,” she said. “Wouldn’t you go? I would.” She said she recently hired three people after the Athens-Clarke County Commission approved hiring incentives. One of them is a new chief assistant from Illinois, Robert Wilso, who has 29 years of experience in criminal law, including prosecuting gang cases.
“What they can’t say is I’m not doing my job,” Gonzalez said of the oversight commission’s supporters. “What they can say is they don’t like the way I’m doing it, because I’m not doing it the way it was done for hundreds of years before.”
Gaines, given a chance for a rebuttal, said the bill is not personal. “I just believe there are real issues in the office,” he said, including understaffing. “It’s a gross misstatement,” he said, to make the bill about race.
Gaines left the town hall meeting—organized by Commissioner Tiffany Taylor—midway through to attend another event. Rep. Spencer Frye (D-Athens) stayed the entire time, while Reps. Marcus Wiedower (R-Watkinsville) and Trey Rhodes (R-Greensboro) and Sens. Bill Cowsert (R-Athens) and Frank Ginn (R-Danielsville) did not attend. A video of the meeting is available at athenspoliticsnerd.com.
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